May 30, 2016

This is the third time I’ve tried to write this one, and hopefully the last. The first one was about religion, and the second about politics… Two topics guaranteed to give me more “oops moments” than I could handle. So I tossed them both aside and started over again.

I’ve had so many “oopses” in my life that I could probably fill ten volumes with stories detailing them, but, I always say making mistakes is part of learning. Thus, I try to learn from my mistakes and move on, hoping not to repeat them. While that’s probably a good policy for life, it doesn’t really work as far as fiction is concerned. Fiction, especially mystery and suspense fiction, thrives on those “oopses,” because plots are primarily based on conflict. To paraphrase Aldrous Budrous, all plots follow the same basic formula: Character encounters a problem and this is followed by things getting worse, things getting worse, things getting worse, things getting worse, the climax, and the resolution. If you think about it, this formula makes a lot of sense. Think about your favorite book or movie where the hero is a man (or woman) alone, fighting against the tide of overwhelming odds. From Shane, to High Noon, to Die Hard, to the Rocky movies, this tired and true formula has seen us through a lot of entertaining times. Thus, when the cowardly towns people desert Will Kane as the noon train approaches, or when Rocky Balboa stands in the center of the ring doing the stare-down with his fearsomely undermatched opponent, it’s the precursor to the ultimate “oops moment.” But would we want it any other way? It’s the quintessential retelling of the Hero’s Journey.

One of my favorite authors, Brian Garfield, once came up with a list of dos and don’ts for writing suspense fiction. One of them was “Make it hard for your protagonist.” We all like to root for the underdog, and love to see a person come out of nowhere and succeed despite seemingly impossible odds. How boring it would be to see the hero breeze through the conflict, besting each adversary without breaking a sweat. The ones we remember best are those knock-down, drag-outs that test the protagonist by taking him to the brink of defeat.

I’m currently writing the Executioner series, and the hero, Mack Bolan, is a consummate professional. He’s morphed form an urban vigilante into the American James Bond. Fans of the series know he’s going to eventually triumph, because he’s going to be back in the next book, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give him a free ride. Quite the opposite. Bolan can be sure he’s going to be put through his paces with each adventure. As I’ve have his partner point out in several novels, “Saving the world each time is hard work.” In the current one I’m working on, Fatal Prescription, Bolan pays homage to Murphy’s Law, which states that “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with Murphy myself, and I know he can never be counted out. I’d go so far as to appoint him “King of the Oopses.” But in a lot of ways, he’s also a fiction writer’s best friend. As I said, plots thrive on conflict, and the worse things get for the protagonist, the better the reader likes it.

So, let’s not be too hard on those “oopses.” After all, where would fiction be without them?

May 28, 2016

Margaret Lucke's short story "Femme Fatale" tells how a small crime -- shoplifting a lipstick -- leads to large and unintended consequences. It is included in Black Coffee, a new anthology of noir fiction, featuring 23 tales of crime and punishment published by Darkhouse Books. The anthology's title was inspired by Peggy Lee's bluesy song, "Black Coffee."

Next Week: Forgive me for I have sinned...oopses in fiction

Every person has their own list of things that shatter the suspension of disbelief. We don't usually leave wrist-watches on characters arms if the wrist watch hasn't been invented yet, but there are a million ways that a writer can come face to face with an error in logic, history, or description, that leaves the readers saying "Ooops!"

Join us next week as we confess or sins of commission and omission related to getting the facts in fiction wrong.

May 27, 2016

For this Friday, we turned to the LadyKillers and asked what they imbibe/ingest whilst formulating their fiction. Here's a roundup of responses:

From Mysti, madly scribbling away in London: "Here's tea and spring water from the Savoy Hotel, a place in London so posh it doesn't have a number in its address, just 'The Strand'!"

Priscilla's offering is simply titled "Essential writing food."

From Ann: "Whether mulling over murder or rustling through research, I depend on an unhealthy combination of coffee, Trader Joe's gourmet jelly beans, and See's chocolate." If you are curious as to what she is researching for Book #6 of the Silver Rush series, check out the title of the book currently on her desk.

Camille goes one step farther and *creates* tasty treats as part of her fiction-writing process. Mini-hamburgers (pastry-based). Yum!

May 26, 2016

I love it when food plays a role in cozy mysteries. Luckily for me, there are dozens of books that revolve around delectable bites in some fashion.

I’m currently reading A Clue in the Stew by Connie Archer. The series centers on Lucky Jamieson, who operates a restaurant where the menu items are predominantly soups. The author provides descriptions of the delicious varieties and accompanying sandwiches and such without bogging down the story with too many details. It’s just enough to whet my appetite. Plus, there are recipes in the back, which is always a nice bonus.

If soup isn’t your thing, you can find cozies that involve donut shops, cake shops, or ice cream parlors. Joanne Fluke has the long running Hannah Swensen series, which takes place at The Cookie Jar. While each mystery book contains several dessert recipes, Fluke has also put all the recipes together in a mouth-watering cookbook.

For variety, there’s the Goldy Shulz series by Diane Mott Davidson. Goldy runs a catering company and makes anything from scrumptious brunch casseroles to savory hors d oeuvres to luscious desserts, with several recipes included in the back, of course.

Sometimes I don’t know if I read these books to solve a good murder mystery or make myself hungry reading about all this great food. Even something as simple as Hercule Poirot drinking a cup of hot chocolate makes me sit up and take notice.

Maybe it’s because eating and reading are two of my favorite activities. Judging by the number of titles published each year that involve mysteries and food, I’m not the only one.

May 25, 2016

I saw the Manus x Machina exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently. This wedding dress is a "scuba knit" that its creator Karl Lagerfeld, apparently without irony, described as "haute without couture," or maybe it was "couture without the haute."

Either way, I thought Lagerfeld must know very different brides than I do.

The exhibit was about more than fancy clothes. It was also about a movement during the French Enlightenment that strove to elevate crafts to the same status as art. Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert created an encyclopedia of the "science arts and crafts" (1751-72). That book said the trades, like dressmaking, were as noble as arts and sciences. The book was part of a movement to remove the prejudice against manual labor, and it documents the creativity and complexity required to create works like this dress.

The struggle for egalitarianism continues to this day. Auteur theory and the star system (in Hollywood and Silicon Valley!) have pushed back against the view that the maker of chairs or dresses is as valuable a citizen as the designer who creates wedding dresses that can also serve as shark bait. And whenever the subject of guilds or unions comes up in conversation with other technical writers, there is often a palpable shrinking away, as if having a union or guild is to jump down the class structure a rung or three.

But what has all this to do with crime fiction? Well, I think one can sense a certain condescension in some conversations about crime fiction genres, at least with some reviewers and other self-appointed experts. Cozy crime stories, where food or crafts or talking cats may figure prominently, are no less an endeavor for the writer than bloody misanthropic investigators who use their gift for detection only when a fist to the jaw won't do. Lest you think I'm prejudiced against the private eye genre, though, know that I have defended Hammett's work as literature to the howls and derision of people who find a value difference, not just a difference of genre, between The Maltese Falcon and The Sun Also Rises.

I'll continue to read some of my favorite cozies, noirs, and thrillers without worrying about their literary "value." The art and science and craft of writing is indeed noble, and I respect everyone who gets to "The End."

May 24, 2016

I enjoy crafts in fiction and, though owning ten thumbs, grew up appreciating the art involved. But I’ll concentrate on food here, a subject I like far too much, but the “eat” part of “eat, drink, and be merry” became part of my philosophy when I arrived in San Francisco in 1962 and discovered ethnic restaurants.

What people eat or how they do so says much about character without any other commentary.

The detective, who lives on hamburgers, fries, and black coffee served in thick mugs, probably smells of greasy diners and, I am willing to bet, never mentions washing his clothes or only changes his shirt between books. He is obsessively focused and is probably a happy loner. Think of many older, noir detectives in particular.

Then there is the detective who likes to cook. The meals may be simple, but they sound yummy. He may even be vegetarian or find the art of preparing food a form of meditation. In the background, he probably plays music. He also changes his shirt at least once in the course of the book, forms deeper relationships (although they can be troubled and eventually end), and actually remembers to feed his cat. He has a cat! He is the somewhat reluctant loner, rather intuitive, and often bends the rules. Kind of Harry Bosch or Joe Pike or Elvis Cole.

Then there is the detective who adores food, eats out at his favorite restaurant where the owner stays open just to serve him dinner, and takes all his female suspects or witnesses out for a good meal while judging their veracity by how they react to the food. He may enjoy solitude, but so does his girlfriend of many years. He may not have a cat, but he weeps when his favorite ancient tree is cut down to build some modern thingie. He may even try to save dying seagulls. He pretends to bend rules, but actually just puts a new spin on them. A bit along the lines of Salvo Montalbano.

The other great thing about food in a book is dialogue. People usually talk when they are eating, a mulling over or collection of clues. If the dining companions are silent, there is a good reason.

And how better to add all those senses: color, smell, taste, sounds? All possible in the course of the meal, and all can punch up atmosphere.

Arrange 12 vanilla wafers, flat side up, on a tray or platter. These are the bottoms of the "hamburger buns."

Using the green frosting tube, squirt a ring around the edge of each wafer. Using your finger or a toothpick, rough up the frosting so it resembles ragged lettuce.

Place 1 chocolate cookie (the meat!) on top of each green-ringed wafer.

Using the red frosting tube (ketchup!), squirt a ring around the flat edges of a dozen additional wafers (the tops of the "hamburger buns).

Using the yellow frosting tube (mustard!), squirt a yellow ring over the red ring of Step 4, allowing the two colors to mix in places.

Place each newly ringed wafer, flat side down (top of the bun!), on top of a chocolate cookie/wafer.

DONE! You now have 12 hamburgers, with lettuce, ketchup, and mustard.

(optional) Dot the top of each "burger" with egg white, and use as adhesive for a few sesame seeds.

Be creative: add a smooth ring of white frosting for an onion, a square of orange frosting for cheese, or smooth the red ring so it looks more like tomato.

#2. BLOODY FINGER COOKIES

Here are some eerie looking cookies for a mystery book launch.

The Recipe

I cheated (which I usually do at cooking) and started with a roll of cookie dough that's in the refrigerator section of the supermarket. I chose peanut butter because it seemed closest to "skin" color.

Step 1. Instead of cutting the dough as directed, lop off pieces and shape into a long skinny "fingers." The first time I tried this I made the shape too wide and got very, very fat fingers. [You'd think I'd know about thermal expansion.] A roll about the diameter of a pencil works well.

Step 2. Place the fingers on an ungreased cookie sheet. Stick a slivered almond slice into one end of the finger—lo, a fingernail!

Step 3. Squeeze red frosting (blood!) (another cheat, using a readymade tube) on the opposite end from the nail. If you lay the fingers out facing the same way, you can just run a line of frosting down the sheet, capturing all the fingers with one swoop.

May 22, 2016

Margaret Lucke's story "A Fair Day for Murder," featuring artist and private investigator Jess Randolph, is included inHappy Homicides 3: Summertime Crime,a brand-new e-book anthology/boxed set of cozy mysteries, available on Monday, May 23. To mark the publisher is sponsoring a drawing for a very cool beach bag containing everything you need to have a great day at a real or virtual beach -- a plush towel, cookies and hibiscus tea, margarita foot cream, sunblock, relaxation oils and more. Here's the direct link to enter the drawing: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/35d3fb0234/

To enter the drawing go to http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/35d3fb0234/

In the "developmental" news department...

Priscilla Royal is in throes of finishing a book. One cat was sick but is now fully recovered and blames getting the virus on exercise. In honor of Cricket's recovery, Priscilla had a sip of wine from the slopes of Mt Vesuvius near Pompeii. That bit of her DNA that comes from Italy rejoiced....

Ann Parker is plowing through research materials as she tries to create a credible synopsis (with lots of wiggle room) for Book #6. Much grumbling and whining accompanies such activities.

Get ready for next week: WHAT'S ON THE MENU? FOOD AND CRAFTS IN FICTION

The topic for the coming week involves tasty treats and crafty crafts. Bring your favorite cuppa and snacky snack, along with your knitting needles and glue gun, and see what our killer writers have to share about food and crafts in fiction!

May 20, 2016

Research--sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's a burden. Which it is at any given moment depends on what I'm researching (is the subject interesting or boring?). And when (am I tight on a deadline, or do I have time to explore the topic a bit?) And of course, how.

I've found that methods of doing research fall into four categories, which I think of as the Four L's: Library, Lecture, Lunch, and Life. I'm using each of these labels somewhat broadly and loosely, of course.

LIBRARY is my shorthand for all kinds of reading material -- books, newspapers, magazines, and all of the huge amount of material about, well, anything that the Internet puts right at our fingertips. It amazes me how much I can learn in seconds without moving from my desk chair, when not that long ago locating a fact I needed meant a trip to the library and several hours of poring over reference books. I still like finding information in books and I have a large collection of them in my office. And I love real libraries -- support your local public library, everyone! It's a real asset for you and your community.

LECTURE refers to author talks, panels at conferences, speakers at meetings, classes, workshops -- all of the ways that someone shares their knowledge with a group of other people. For example, at recent meetings of writers organizations I belong to, search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers gave a demonstration, a police detective described how he finds and busts the perverts who spread child pornography, author Jan Burke explained 25 things a crime writer should know about forensics, and a medical examiner told us what her job is really like. None of those topics pertain directly to what I'm writing at the moment, but they all add layers to my knowledge of crime, investigation, and the justice system, and also to my confidence that I'm following that old advice to writers: Write what you know.

LUNCH is the one-on-one version of Lecture. Find an expert to who can answer your questions and ask that person directly. I call it Lunch because sharing a meal lets you have a relaxed conversation and paying for it gives you a small way to show your appreciation for the person's time. Of course lunch only works if your expert is nearby and willing. A telephone conversation or an email exchange sometimes works better. Most people enjoy talking about their area of expertise with someone who is really interested and already somewhat knowledgeable (so do your homework first).

LIFE means research that draws on your own experience -- in other words, learning by doing. Photographs, maps, and guidebooks are helpful, but when you want to capture the feel of the neighborhood where your story is set, nothing beats walking down its streets. The best way to find out what it's like to shoot a pistol is to go to a gun range and fire one. Riding along in a police car shows you what a cop's day is like. Obviously some things we write about are best left to our imaginations -- no one would advocate for actually committing a murder in the name of research for crime fiction (or for any other reason). But when you've done, seen, heard, smelled, or tasted something for yourself, it enriches your depiction of it in your story.

Whether it's fun or a burden, research is necessary if you want to tell your story authentically and well. It also has another important function -- it's a great way to procrastinate and to avoid getting down to the actual writing.